I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03574 on
‎ 25 October 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
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Scottish Government is a key partner in Save a Life for Scotland (SALFS). The partnership published an updated Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) strategy in March 2021, which seeks to increase the percentage of OHCAs which have a defibrillator applied before the arrival of ambulance service from 8% to 20%.

Achieving this is not only about increasing the number of defibrillators in public places, but also about ensuring that defibrillators already in the community are publicly accessible, are registered with the Scottish Ambulance Service so they can be directed to in instances of OHCA, and that people feel empowered to use them. The OHCA strategy identifies a number of actions to take in order to achieve these goals.

We also recognise that it is important to support evidence based placement of defibrillators in areas where OHCAs are most likely to occur. To this end, the Resuscitation Research Group, Edinburgh University is piloting a data-led approach to the placement of defibrillators in Scotland, called SCOT-PAD. The Scottish Government funded the initial modelling analysis in 2018 and are fully supportive of the group’s work.

As you know, our Mental Health Transition & Recovery Plan, which sets out over 100 actions in response to the mental health effects of the pandemic, is supported by a £120 million Recovery and Renewal fund.

This year, around £40 million has been allocated to NHS Boards to improve the mental health care that children and young people receive through Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and also includes funding for NHS Boards to build professional capacity to support children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs.

Since October 2020, we have also allocated £30 million of additional funding to local authorities to deliver locally based mental health and wellbeing support for 5-24 year olds in their communities. This includes £18.75 million to fund new and enhanced community mental health and wellbeing services for 5-24 year olds with a focus on prevention, early intervention and the treatment of distress. The remaining £11.25 million was made available to support children and young people’s mental health and emotional wellbeing issues that have arisen as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In addition, we continue to prioritise support for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing in schools, including developing and delivering new mental health training and learning resources, and £16 million per annum in funding to ensure that every secondary school has access to counselling services.

I can confirm that a fee award increase for General Ophthalmic Services eye examinations is under active consideration.

Scottish Government funding for dementia research is not allocated to NHS Boards.

The following table shows Chief Scientist Office (CSO) funding for dementia research from 2007/8 through academic project/fellowship funding and the annual funding provided to the Dementia and Neuroprogressive Disease research network. CSO’s research project funding panels were paused during 2020 due to COVID-19 related pressures but have since reopened.

Breakdown:

Phase 1 of the upscale of the NHS SARS-CoV-2 Genomics sequencing service from 200 samples to 684 samples/week is complete. Phase 2 to further expand the service will continue throughout the rest of the year to achieve an increase of up to 1000 samples/day.

In phase 3 of the project, due for completion by April 2022, a service review and options appraisal will be undertaken on future development beyond the immediate priority of sequencing for SARS-CoV-2 and how this will support Scotland’s wider public health service.

In line with our support of Genome UK, the Scottish Genomics Leadership Group, our expert group in genomics medicine are providing advice to the Scottish Government to plan our long-term agenda for genomics medicine in Scotland. The group will consider any learnings from the pathogen service and how they may apply to our work on human genomics.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03144 on
‎ 28 September 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Since its introduction in 2017, the Scottish Government has allocated the following funds to the Flexible Workforce Development Fund:

Pension Credit is reserved to the UK Government. The Department for Work and Pensions publishes an estimate of Pension Credit take-up, annually, at a UK-wide level only. The latest figures published (covering 2018/19) show that 76% of the maximum amount of possible Pension Credit expenditure was claimed.

A robust, impartial procurement process has been undertaken in accordance with regulations and best practice to identify a partner to undertake work on this commitment.

Following the procurement exercise, EY has been awarded the programme of work and analysis to better understand our energy requirements as we transition to net zero and how this aligns with our climate change targets and the goal of the Paris agreement.

It is expected that this work will supplement a wide range of evidence that will be considered to take an informed policy decision on the contribution of North Sea production to the global climate emergency and to Scotland’s economy, security and wellbeing within Scotland’s wider energy system.

The Programme of Work will inform the forthcoming Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, which brings together our commitment to refresh the 2017 Energy Strategy and to deliver Scotland’s first sectoral Just Transition Plan.